Dear Editor,
It is with profound sadness learning of the impending closure of Stabroek News. Having been there from its birth I can add to the many sad voices expression of despair. If I’m correct I believed Mr. de Caires and other co-founders got a grant from an NGO in the United States of America. I think it was the NED, an organisation founded in 1983 that worked to strengthen and support democratic institutions worldwide. The grant was to start a weekly publication that covered for six months. Fortunately, because of press freedom obtained at that time most of the population was devoid of an independent expression of opinions except for Catholic Standard. After the expiration of the grant Stabroek News had already made a significant impact and was firmly entrenched and held its own.
I was the typist who typed the weekly publication that was composed at a house I think was owned by Mr. Elvin McDavid in Peter Rose and Anira streets in Queenstown. Mrs. de Caires would then take it to the Trinidad Express newspapers to be printed and returned with the printed copies by air. But before all that it was Mrs. de Caires who did all the ground work. I think the late Mr. Yesu Persaud loaned her a Selectric II typewriter that was never designed to do newspaper work that used a golf ball with the characters that could be changed with different font sizes. I don’t know how I made it worked. The first three employees at the inception were the late Sharief Khan, Charles de Florimonte and myself.
At the inauguration regional newspaper editors were invited along with NDI officials and Mr. Ken Gordon from Trinidad Express was mystified when showed the machine that I did the typing on. I must mention too, that the first edition was for free distribution. In closing it was Mrs. de Caires’ unwavering relentlessness and resilience that made it thus far.